OpenSSL License

Also known as OpenSSL, OpenSSL License, OpenSSL-SSLeay License.

Commercial use: allowed
Share alike: not required
Attribution: required (keep the copyright and license notices)

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Write this as a license text (needs an account) DALICC reads the model above and writes what it permits, requires and prohibits in plain English. Without an account, the Text download above writes the model out from the vocabulary.

Canonical URI https://dalicc.net/licenselibrary/OpenSSL

Permissions

Charge distribution fee from the text
Commercial use from the text
Derivative works from the text
Derive from the text
Duties
- Attribution from the text
- Notice from the text
- Rename from the text
Display from the text
Distribute from the text
Duties
- Add statement from the text
- Advertising acknowledgement from the text
- Attribution from the text
- Notice from the text
Modified works from the text
Modify from the text
Duties
- Attribution from the text
- Notice from the text
- Rename from the text
Present from the text
Reproduce from the text

Prohibitions

Change license from the text
Promote from the text

License-wide duties

This license states no duties that apply to the work as a whole.

What applies by default

The statements above are the library's reading of this license: each is marked with the sentence it rests on, or as a library convention where the text is not explicit. The statements below are the ones the DALICC reasoner supplies for acts the license says nothing about, from the default rules of the dependency graph it reasons with. Each one names the legal source it rests on. None of it is in the record.

No default rule of that graph reaches this license: it speaks about every act the rules are about.

Clauses

Warranty disclaimer

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE OpenSSL PROJECT ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED.

Limitation of liability

IN NO EVENT SHALL THE OpenSSL PROJECT OR ITS CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

Additional clauses

3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software must display the following acknowledgment: "This product includes software developed by the OpenSSL Project for use in the OpenSSL Toolkit. (http://www.openssl.org/)"

Promotion specification

This product includes software developed by the OpenSSL Project for use in the OpenSSL Toolkit. (http://www.openssl.org/)

Info

Target asset types: Software
Region / jurisdiction: Worldwide
Validity: Perpetual
Source: https://spdx.org/licenses/OpenSSL.html
Legal code: https://spdx.org/licenses/OpenSSL.html
This description is published under: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
Publisher: The OpenSSL Project
Attribution name: The OpenSSL Project
SPDX identifier: OpenSSL on the SPDX license list
DALICC identifier: OpenSSL

This record is published under CC BY 4.0. Credit it as: DALICC License Library, DALICC - Verein zur Förderung der Rechtssicherheit in der Datenbewirtschaftung, https://dalicc.net, CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The license it describes belongs to its publisher.

Use this license

Everything below is generated from this record. Replace the example address with the address of your own work.

JSON sidecar

{
  "license-uri": "https://dalicc.net/licenselibrary/OpenSSL",
  "license-title": "OpenSSL License",
  "spdx-id": "OpenSSL",
  "attribution": "Copyright (c) [year] [copyright holder]",
  "asset": null,
  "generated-by": "DALICC"
}

RDF, Turtle

@prefix cc: <http://creativecommons.org/ns#> .

<https://example.org/my-work>
    cc:license <https://dalicc.net/licenselibrary/OpenSSL> .

RDF, JSON-LD

{
  "@context": {
    "cc": "http://creativecommons.org/ns#"
  },
  "@id": "https://example.org/my-work",
  "cc:license": {
    "@id": "https://dalicc.net/licenselibrary/OpenSSL"
  }
}

HTML attribution

<p>This work is licensed under <a href="https://dalicc.net/licenselibrary/OpenSSL" rel="license">OpenSSL License</a>.</p>

This license asks for attribution, so the credit line is part of it.

Badge

Markdown

[![License: OpenSSL License](https://dalicc.net/license-library/OpenSSL/badge.svg)](https://dalicc.net/license-library/OpenSSL)

HTML

<a href="https://dalicc.net/license-library/OpenSSL"><img src="https://dalicc.net/license-library/OpenSSL/badge.svg" alt="License: OpenSSL License"></a>

Review

Written from the license text by: Giray Havur
Written on: 2026-09-22
Second review: not yet done
Record changed since this review: yes (version 2, 2026-09-24)
Findings: 13 recorded, 11 applied to the record, 0 proposed

Models the licence that governed OpenSSL up to version 3: two agreements in one document, the OpenSSL License and the original SSLeay License, both of which a licensee must satisfy. Both are six- and four-clause BSD texts with advertising acknowledgements. The SSLeay half ends with a sentence that forbids changing the licence terms, which is why this record prohibits dalicc:ChangeLicense.

13 findings

info Rubric 1 spdx:licenseId applied

File name, record identifier, SPDX identifier and IRI local name are all OpenSSL. The SPDX identifier covers both halves of the document, so one record models both.
info Rubric 2 odrl:target applied

One odrl:AssetCollection of dct:type dcmitype:Software. Both halves govern source and binary forms of a library.
major Rubric 3 odrl:permission applied

The grant of the OpenSSL half reads "Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met", and the SSLeay half says "This library is free for commercial and non-commercial use as long as the following conditions are aheared to". The record permits reproduce, distribute, modify, derive, display, present, commercial use, derivative works, modified works and the distribution fee.
major Rubric 4 odrl:prohibition applied

dalicc:ChangeLicense is prohibited. The last sentence of the SSLeay half reads "The licence and distribution terms for any publically available version or derivative of this code cannot be changed. i.e. this code cannot simply be copied and put under another distribution licence [including the GNU Public Licence.]" That is an express bar on relicensing, not a notice condition, so the record departs from family rule 15 here.
major Rubric 4 odrl:prohibition applied

dalicc:promote is prohibited for clause 4 of the OpenSSL half, "The names "OpenSSL Toolkit" and "OpenSSL Project" must not be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without prior written permission".
major Rubric 5 odrl:duty applied

cc:Attribution and cc:Notice hang off odrl:distribute, odrl:modify and odrl:derive for clauses 1 and 2 of both halves and for the SSLeay sentence "any Copyright notices in the code are not to be removed ... Eric Young should be given attribution as the author of the parts of the library used".
minor Rubric 5 odrl:duty applied

dalicc:advertisingAcknowledgement hangs off odrl:distribute for clause 3 of each half, and dalicc:addStatement for clause 6 of the OpenSSL half and clause 4 of the SSLeay half, which put a prescribed acknowledgement on a redistribution of any form rather than on advertising. dalicc:rename hangs off odrl:modify and odrl:derive for clause 5, "Products derived from this software may not be called "OpenSSL"".
info Rubric 6 dalicc:PromotionSpecification applied

dalicc:PromotionSpecification carries the OpenSSL acknowledgement wording, following Apache-1.1. The SSLeay acknowledgement wording is quoted inside its clause in dalicc:additionalClauses, because the property holds one literal and the two wordings are different.
minor Rubric 6 dalicc:WarrantyDisclaimer applied

The document carries two disclaimer paragraphs, one per half. dalicc:WarrantyDisclaimer and dalicc:LiabilityLimitation quote the OpenSSL one, which is the half the licence is named after; the SSLeay disclaimer is the same BSD wording with another party named and is not quoted a second time. The typewriter quotation marks (``AS IS'') and the spellings "aheared" and "rouines" are the text's own.
info Rubric 7 cc:jurisdiction applied

The text names no legal system and sets no term, so cc:jurisdiction is dalicc:worldwide and dalicc:validityType is dalicc:perpetual.
info Rubric 8 dalicc:composedOf none

The document is a stack of two agreements, which dalicc:composedOf is made for, but the library holds no separate record for the SSLeay licence, so there is nothing to point at. Both halves are modelled in this record instead and every clause of both is quoted.
info Rubric 9 record none

The consistency check of app.services.composer against the dependency graph dg_default returned an empty conflict list.
major Rubric 10 record applied

Read against licensedata/licenses/Apache-1.0.ttl, which this addition also creates, the clause structure is the same and the two records differ in one statement: OpenSSL prohibits dalicc:ChangeLicense because its text says the terms cannot be changed. the library conventions (see the review method, docs/LICENSE_REVIEW.md section 9) counted that as a violation of rule 15 until it gained an exception list for the two texts that bar relicensing outright, which this record is on.

Report an issue The review record as JSON The review checks the model against the license text. It is not legal advice.

History

This license model has 2 versions. Version 2 is the one served today; every earlier version keeps its own address, so a conclusion drawn from one of them can still be checked against it.

Version 2 current2026-09-24 Giray Havur

The changes since version 1 recorded which sentence of the text each statement rests on and named the license the record itself is published under.

View version 2 JSON-LD Turtle RDF/XML
3 changes
- changed permission odrl:derive with duties [cc:Attribution, cc:Notice, dalicc:rename]
  
  was permission odrl:derive with duties [cc:Attribution, cc:Notice, dalicc:rename]
  
  Manual edit The statement now quotes the sentence of the licence text it rests on: "Products derived from this software may not be called "OpenSSL" nor may "OpenSSL" appear in their names without prior written permission of the OpenSSL Project."
- changed prohibition dalicc:promote
  
  was prohibition dalicc:promote
  
  Manual edit The statement now quotes the sentence of the licence text it rests on: "The names "OpenSSL Toolkit" and "OpenSSL Project" must not be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without prior written permission."
- added dct:license <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/>
  
  Manual edit Every record is published under CC BY 4.0. cc:license names the record DALICC keeps of that licence; dct:license now names it by the address Creative Commons publishes it at, so that a consumer matching the canonical IRI finds it.
Version 1

Created from the license text on 2026-09-22 (Permissive variants).

View version 1 JSON-LD Turtle RDF/XML

Every change names the reason behind it: a finding of the content review, one of its library-wide decisions, the metadata that review wrote onto every record, or a hand edit. None of it is legal advice.

Nothing on this page is legal advice. What a license means is decided by its text; ask a legal advisor before you rely on it.